Friday, August 14, 2009

I have three brothers. They are all salt-water aquarium enthusiasts. Landen joined the other two as a true hobbyist this week by purchasing his own salt water tank (Cameron already has one upstairs, and Dalton, the trail-blazer, has one up in Idaho). As it turns out... it's very complicated to keep a little piece of the ocean in a glass cube in your bedroom. So many things i have learned these week, listening to conversations about water cycling and different lighting systems, salinity and rock to water ratios... I helped him set up his rock formation, something slightly reminiscent of pride rock, which I'm quite proud of.

A virgin tank has to sit and "cycle" for a while (from a week to a month) to get the water to the right composition. For the past couple days we've been staring at a tank of live rocks growing algae. It's strangely interesting. But today Landen couldn't stand the anticipation any longer, and we went to get a tester fish... A $6 zebra damsel... the most disposable of all salt water dwellers. Pobrecito. I'm praying he survives the night.

It does make the tank staring more interesting.

UPDATE: A week later. Still swimming. I think we're out of the danger zone. He's going to make it. And at least he's not lonely anymore.... He's been joined by a shrimp, 7 snails, 5 hermit crabs, some zoas, and a suicidal blue-spotted jawfish (a species notorious for jumping out of tanks... No lie, the first night he jumped into the filter... just like in Finding Nemo... and he costs about 21 damsel fishes...). A veritable ecosystem.